Saturday, October 11, 2008

More maneuvers, improved landings and almost killed by a helicopter

It's been a fun and interesting week of flying. I flew both Wednesday and Saturday, and am feeling overall quite a bit more comfortable and better as I fly more.

Wednesday consisted of a set of new maneuvers, including power-on stalls (which were a lot of fun) and some other maneuvers Kelly showed me in order to demonstrate how the aircraft can be recovered from unusual situations. I also practiced emergency landings due to an engine out situation and got to fly a router around a bunch of clouds that were broken up and dotting the area, which was a nice view. It was a good day.

Saturday was yet another lesson designed specifically to practice flying traffic patterns and landings at an airport (Hillsboro again) in the form of touch-and-goes. I did eight landings (or maybe it was nine, I'd have to look back), and with each one I found I was starting to feel better and better. My landings still need a lot of work but I flew a number of them with Kelly's feet and hands not helping, and I was better able to get and maintain flight over the runway centerline each time. I'm getting a better feel for the airplane and realizing the value of getting lined up early and letting the airplane fly without having to steer it the whole way down, if at all possible. My landings were a little too flat - I need to keep that nose wheel in the air even after the main gear is on the runway.

But all in all, it was a successful day of landings that built my confidence a bit, which I think is good for me right about now.

Then came the excitement.

We departed from the traffic pattern at Hillsboro to the left and set up to extend a bit to the south. Once clear of Hillsboro we turned left to head back to Twin Oaks, the airport where I am training out of. We made out way to win Oaks and I entered the traffic pattern at the proper altitude (1000 ft. AGL) and angle. I then turned to the downwind leg of the approach pattern and flew to the point in the pattern where I was to reduce power and configure the airplane's flaps at 10 degrees.

You need to understand that all airports have a traffic pattern that aircraft are supposed to follow. They're established and published and are part of the standard information available to all pilots. At many airports, including Twin Oaks, there is a common radio frequency that all pilots use to communicate while flying around the airport, called a Unicom frequency. We announced what we were doing (entering the pattern on a left downwind for runway two-zero) as we entered the pattern. Generally, the pattern around a smaller airport is flown at about 1000 feet above the ground and is either a "right" or "left" pattern - referring to the direction of the turns a pilot makes when flying the box around the airport on approach and departure.

Twin Oaks is a left pattern, and I was heading "downwind" in the pattern parallel to runway 02, about to make a left 90-degree turn that would put me perpendicular to the runway. The step after that would be another left turn 90 degrees to the final approach leg, at which point I'd be headed straight at the end of the runway and about to land.

As I was saying, I'd just configured 10 degrees of flaps and reduced power. I was flying slower and was about to make my left turn to the base leg when all of a sudden a dark Robinson R-22 helicopter appeared at exactly our flight level, headed literally straight at us head-on - and closing fast. Kelly grabbed the controls and pulled a fast right turn and steered the airplane toward the ground a bit. The helicopter, which was no more than 200 feet from us (at best), also did a hard right turn (thank goodness) and we missed each other.

It doesn't really get much closer than that. That helicopter, flying through the area on its way back to Hillsboro, was doing the equivalent of flying the wrong way on a one-way street, right at the traffic pattern altitude, on a Saturday at a busy recreational airport. Honestly I have no idea why anyone would do that. What I do know is that some rather terse phone calls were made once we landed (Kelly kept control of the plane after the helicopter incident and got us safely down onto the runway).

I'm just glad Kelly's a great pilot and got us out of the way on time. And yes, I'm still looking forward to flying again on Monday. Today was a great experience with some level of improvement in my landings, and I also got to experience first hand why it's so important to know where you are, what your surroundings are, and how to get out of a dangerous situation the right way.

3 comments:

  1. WOW! Incredible! My heart sped up reading about the helicopter, whew...... have to clean out my pants now :)

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  2. Heh, yea we're fine. We were both a bit angry when we reached the ground (Kelly probably a little more so than me), but we were just fine.

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